News

County’s Planning Group to hear controversial proposal on April 18

Story and photos by Karen Pearlman

Photo,left: Valle de Oro Community Planning Group members during packed hearing on Cottonwood Sand Mine

March 20, 2025 (Rancho San Diego)  – More than 100 residents who would be most affected by the proposed Cottonwood Sand Mine gathered in force Tuesday, March 18 at the Rancho San Diego Library to let the Valle de Oro Community Planning Group know they don’t want it in their neighborhood.

After listening to more than two dozen people share their concerns, the community planning group voted 11-0 to recommend opposing the project that would see 214 acres of the former 280-acre Cottonwood Golf Course along Willow Glen Drive in Rancho San Diego turned into a digging site for sand mining for at least 10 years. 

The group also voted 10-1, with one abstention, to not agree with a design exception review to waive the undergrounding overhead utilities along Willow Glen Road.

Next step: County Planning Commission hearing April 18

Oday Yousif, chairman of the Valle de Oro planning group, said he would be submitting a formal recommendation on behalf of the organization and those it serves, to not approve the sand mine Major Use Permit application to the San Diego County Planning Department by the March 23 due date before the item is heard at the April 18 meeting.

That recommendation, along with a recommendation from the county’s Planning Department Services, will be presented to the county’s five-member Planning Commission. The County Planning Commission will then decide on whether to approve or not approve the sand mine operation permit application.

The County Planning Commission meets monthly to consider land use projects affecting unincorporated areas of the county. Its next meeting is March 21, but the meeting for the sand mine item has been set for 9 a.m., Friday, April 18 at the County Operations Center Hearing Room on Overland Drive.

Photo, right:  Valle do Oro Community Planning Group Chair Oday Yousif, left, looks on as County Land Use Planner Chris Jacobs gives presesntation.

Residents share concerns during crowded meeting

Residents at the meeting expressed concerns ranging from environmental, health and safety issues related to the silica dust being kicked up during the process, as well as traffic impacts, especially for emergency safety needs. Among those there to listen was applicant representative Brice Bossler and County Land Use Planner Chris Jacobs.  

San Miguel Consolidated Fire Protection District Director Theresa McKenna said that in 2022, then-Fire Chief Criss Brainard provided comments the county on the district’s concerns about the project related to emergency response time delays.

“Increased heavy truck traffic and slowing during construction all have the potential of increasing emergency response times,” McKenna said. “In our letter to the County, the Fire District requested health and safety concerns be mitigated for the benefit of the community, since even short delays can mean the difference between life and death.”

Detractors say that the project is inconsistent with both the County General Plan and Community Specific Plan. The Rancho Specific Plan identifies the golf course serving as a buffer area and providing a larger setback to sensitive habitat areas.

They also say that a final Environmental Impact Report has not been shown, so they are working off information culled from the Draft EIR, first circulated in 2021.

The site is in the middle of the Rancho San Diego region, and shares borders with homes, and is near schools and businesses.

Dr. Bob Foster (photo, left), a retired physician, said he is “extremely concerned about the negative health effects of this sand mine idea.”

“I’m adamantly opposed to it,” Foster said. “I think it's a horrendous plan that this is come up with and I want to be clear that we’ve got to do everything we can to stop this from ever becoming a reality. It’s a danger to those kids who have to walk to school every day across the clouds of smoke and sand that are going to be expelled from the sand mine operation. It’s just appalling to me that this plan has actually gotten to this level.”

The site also runs along the Sweetwater River watershed --a nearly 230-square mile region that goes from the Cuyamaca Mountains out to San Diego Bay.  Groundwater from its lower basin is also linked to the watershed. The site is upstream from a federal wildlife preserve.

Sweetwater Authority, which oversees the water in the region, has expressed concern in the past about the project’s impact on water levels and quality.

Josan Feathers (photo, right), a registered Civil Engineer and member of the Valle de Oro Cottonwood Subcommittee, posed some rhetorical questions to those in attendance.

“Would you trust an applicant or engineers who missed the need for an additional 3.5 million tons of backfill? Would you trust the same applicant to excavate 79 acres downstream of the 30-year-old Steele Canyon Bridge (in Jamul) and about 100 acres upstream up to 40 feet below the ground surface?”

Feathers said that the development proposes to backfill the river “with excavated materials they can’t sell.”

“This project can potentially taint and pollute the drinking water that flows into the Sweetwater Reservoir which serves almost 200,000 South Bay residences, potentially endangering and impacting them, as well as the wildlife in the area,” she said.

The developer’s view

The developer of the land at the golf course, New West Investment, has said previously that the project is needed to supply sand for local building and infrastructure projects, and its presence will mean avoiding the cost of importing sand.

Areas included within the project boundary that are not disturbed by mining would be subject to habitat improvement through removal of invasive species in the river channel (if necessary) or would be left in their current condition including the existing Sweetwater River channel. (See map of project site, left)

The project would also make certain improvements to Willow Glen Drive prior to beginning mining operations.

New West Investment and Los Angeles-based investor Michael Schlesinger purchased Cottonwood in 2015, four years after the golf course filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Representatives for the project were asked to weigh in the following day, and provided only a brief statement.

“The Cottonwood Proposal would ultimately transform a defunct golf course property into 200 acres of permanent, preserved open space for the community to enjoy,” the statement reads.

“In the near-term, it would provide critically needed sand supplies for housing and infrastructure projects through a phased approach that reduces community concerns around views. Creating a local sand supply at Cottonwood is a win for the San Diego region because it would reduce the increased costs and environmental damage caused by trucking sand in from outside the region and Mexico.”

Schlesinger has been planning to mine the site of the former Cottonwood Golf Course since 2018. He bought the property in 2015.

He had also purchased the Escondido Country Club in 2012, then shut down the golf course and worked to build nearly 400 homes on the site. Involved in several legal battles related to that, the homes were eventually built and are now known as the master planned Canopy Grove.

What happens if it’s approved?

While the new EIR has not been released, as originally filed, the proposal explains the plan to mine 4.7 million cubic yards with nearly 3.8 million cubic yards (or 5.7 million tons) of washed concrete sand (construction aggregate) produced over 10 years. It will be done in phases with reclamation planned after each phase for a total of 12 years of activity.

The extraction process would occur in three phases over the span of 10 years and the cleanup, equipment removal and final reclamation would occur in the fourth phase over two years.

Sand excavation and processing would occur between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with trucking operations for material sales and backfill import from 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Stop Cottonwood group mobilizes opposition

Elizabeth Urquhart, who has spearheaded the Stop Cottonwood Sand Mine efforts, spoke passionately at the meeting and presented evidence she said “shows the continued sand mine Major Use Permit application is unsuitable for approval” based on myriad factors, “including impacts on the surrounding environment neighborhood character and public facilities.”

The stopcottonwoodsandmine.com site has been active since the beginning of the issue, and through its work, a large number of Rancho San Diego’s nearly 21,000 residents have signed petitions and have packed public meetings through the years to oppose the project.

After the meeting, Rancho San Diego resident Anne-Marie Jacques said residents “feel like the developers don’t give a crap that this project just doesn’t make sense in this community, and they’re hoping we just give up.”

“Communities like RSD don’t need a sand mine because it wouldn’t add anything of substance or value to us,” she said. “They’re only looking out for their bank accounts not the people who live, work and go to school in the area.”

"We won't be silent as anti-public education politicians try to steal opportunities from our students, our families, and our communities to pay for tax cuts for billionaires," said the head of the nation's largest labor union.

By Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams

March 20, 2025 (Washington, D.C.) - U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday afternoon directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin the process of shutting down the Department of Education.

This article first appeared in Common Dreams and is featured in East County Magazine under a Creative Commons license.

• Once someone books a ride, Via’s technology matches them with other riders headed in the same direction into one small electric vehicle – creating quick and efficient shared trips.
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• The program will operate Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The free ride period ends April 17, after which trips will cost $2.50 each.
• Riders with mobility issues can request door-to-door services and wheelchair-accessible vehicles.

By G. A. McNeeley 

Photo courtesy of Brian McNeeley

March 19, 2025 (Washington D.C.) — The Agriculture Department predicts egg prices could rise by more than 40%, on top of already steep price rises in 2024. While egg producers blame bird flu outbreaks, the Justice Department this month announced an investigation into whether egg producers might be sharing information and engaging in price gouging, ABC News reports. 

President Donald Trump’s campaign platform including a pledge to bring down inflation including egg prices, but so far, prices continue to skyrocket.  Now, the administration is offering its first details on its plan to fight avian flu and ease costs. 

With an emphasis on farms tightening their measures to prevent avian flu’s spread, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will invest another $1 billion on top of the $2 billion it has already invested, since the outbreak first began in 2022, AP reports. 

The main reason egg prices have climbed (hitting an all-time average high of $4.95 per dozen) is that more than 166 million birds have been slaughtered to limit the virus’ spread when cases are found. Most were egg-laying chickens. Just since the start of the year, more than 30 million egg layers have been killed. 

However, new research by Food and Water Watch suggests that major egg corporations might also be using the avian flu as an excuse to raise the price of eggs, the Guardian reports. 

The Price of Eggs Is Rising 

The USDA is predicting that the cost of eggs will go up by 41.1% this year. 

Prices have more than doubled since before the outbreak began, costing customers at least $1.4 billion last year, according to agricultural economists at the University of Arkansas. Some customers are even paying more than a dollar per egg (over $12 a dozen) in some places. 

Rollins acknowledged that it will take some time before customers see an effect at the checkout counter. It takes infected farms months to dispose of deceased birds, sanitize their farms and raise new birds. 

“It’s going to take a while to get through, I think in the next month or two, but hopefully by summer,” Rollins told AP News. 

What Is The Administration’s Plan? 

The plan calls for $500 million investment to help farmers bolster biosecurity measures, $400 million in additional aid for farmers whose flocks have been impacted by avian flu, and $100 million to research and potentially develop vaccines and therapeutics for U.S. chicken flocks, and explore rolling back what the administration sees as restrictive animal welfare rules in some states, such as California’s cage-free requirement, a humane animal treatment measure that was approved overwhelmingly by voters. However, increasing crowding by keeping poultry in cramped cages could actually increase spread of the disease. 

The USDA has already paid farmers roughly $1.2 billion for the birds they had to slaughter,  AP reports. The additional aid will continue going to those payments, and help farmers bring in new flocks more quickly. 

The administration is in talks to import about 70-100 million eggs from abroad in the coming months, Rollins said. But there were 7.57 billion table eggs produced in the U.S. last month, so those imports don’t appear likely to make a significant difference in the market. 

Trump administration officials have suggested that vaccines might help reduce the number of birds that have to be slaughtered when there is an outbreak. However, no vaccines have been fully approved for widespread use in poultry, and the industry has said the current prototypes aren’t practical because they require individual shots for each bird. Plus, vaccinated birds could jeopardize exports, since some countries have restrictions. 

Fired Workers Are Being Rehired 

Rollins said she believes the USDA has enough staff to respond to avian flu, even after all the cuts to the federal workforce at the direction of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

“Will we have the resources needed to address the plan I just laid out? We are convinced that we will… as we realign and evaluate where USDA has been spending money, where our employees are spending their time,” Rollins told AP News. 

Democratic U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar said the new plan is an important step, but the USDA needs to confirm it rehired everyone involved in the avian flu response who was mistakenly fired. 

“At a time when producers are already grappling with the bird flu, the public is facing high prices, and all Americans are on edge about what broader spread of this virus could mean, the last thing the administration should have done was to eliminate these positions,” Klobuchar told AP News. “USDA must rehire these crucial personnel immediately.” 

The Agriculture Department is scrambling to rehire several workers who were involved in the government’s response to the ongoing avian flu outbreak that has devastated egg and poultry farms over the past three years. 

A USDA spokesperson said the department “continues to prioritize the response to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)” and several key jobs like veterinarians, animal health technicians and other emergency response personnel involved in the effort were protected from the cuts. Some employees of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) were also eliminated. 

“Although several APHIS positions supporting HPAI were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters,” the department spokesperson told AP News. 

Politico and NBC News reported that the jobs that were eliminated were part of an office that helps oversee the national network of labs the USDA relies on to confirm cases of avian flu and other animal diseases. It wasn’t immediately clear how many workers the department might be trying to rehire, or if any of them worked at the main USDA lab in Ames, Iowa. 

Avian Flu Is Affecting Egg Production 

Egg and poultry farmers have already been working to protect their birds by making workers change and shower before entering barns, using separate sets of tools, and sanitizing any vehicles that enter farms. The challenge is that wild birds easily spread the virus. 

The department has already done biosecurity reviews on about 150 farms and only one had an outbreak afterward, the USDA said, so officials believe more can be done to protect birds and they are going to make those reviews available to more farms. Any farm that has an outbreak has to undergo a biosecurity audit, and the government will help pay up to 75% of the needed biosecurity improvements. 

The vast majority of avian flu outbreaks have been on factory farms where hundreds of thousands (or sometimes millions) of egg-laying hens are caged in close proximity, creating ideal conditions for the rapid spread of infectious diseases. 

If one hen is infected, federal regulations call for the entire flock at the affected site to be killed – due to the risks posed by the deadly and highly contagious virus to other poultry, animals and humans, further disrupting supply and increasing costs. 

So far, 70 human cases have been confirmed in the US. One person has died and another three have required hospital treatment. Almost 1,000 cattle herds have been infected, and more than 54 million birds have been affected in the past three months. The virus has also been detected in almost every US territory. 

Almost 631 million eggs were produced in January 2025 (nearly 10% fewer than January 2022, as flock sizes continue to drop). The USDA tracks pullets (the chicks hatched to replace egg-laying hens) which have been below the five-year average most months since the outbreak began in February 2022. 

Corporations Are Also To Blame 

While avian flu has been a principal driver of rising egg prices, the highly concentrated egg market may also be contributing, according to an analysis by Food and Water Watch (FWW). 

“Bird flu does not fully explain the sticker shock consumers experience in the egg aisle… corporate consolidation is a key culprit behind egg price spikes,” Amanda Starbuck told The Guardian. 

“Powerful corporations that control every step of the supply chain (from breeding hens to hatching eggs to processing and distributing eggs) are making windfall profits off this crisis, raising their prices above and beyond what is necessary to cover any rising costs,” Starbuck added. 

The analysis found that in some regions, prices were going up even before the new strain of the deadly H5N1 virus had affected poultry flocks and reduced egg production. Even as egg production recovered in 2023, prices did not come down. 

The country’s largest egg producer, Cal-Maine, boasted a sevenfold increase in gross profits in 2023, after increasing prices above rising costs despite its flocks not being affected by avian flu during that period. 

Cal-Maine, which produces one in every five eggs eaten in the US, issued shareholder dividends totaling $250 million in 2023 – 40 times more than the previous year. The company sold 7% more eggs in 2024 (compared with 2021) and tripled its profits over the same period, according to company filings. 

“The working class is struggling to afford groceries while companies like Cal-Maine are raking in huge profits and rewarding their shareholders,” Democratic congressman Ro Khanna told The Guardian. “The Trump administration has the power to lower grocery bills, but instead they are imposing blanket tariffs on allies, firing federal workers who are trying to prevent the bird flu, and putting billionaires over ordinary Americans.” 

The top five egg companies own almost half (46%) of all egg-laying commercial hens. Headquartered in Mississippi, Cal-Maine is the only publicly traded US egg producer, and has 75% more hens than the next largest company. 

In its financial documents, Cal-Maine suggests egg prices are outside the company’s control: “We do not sell eggs directly to consumers or set the prices at which eggs are sold to consumers.” But many of its customers rely on Cal-Maine for the majority of their egg needs, according to company filings, so the price it sells its eggs factors into grocery store prices. 

Lakeside egg rancher speaks with ECM 

East County Magazine  spoke with Frank Hilliker, co-owner of Hilliker’s Ranch Fresh Eggs in Lakeside. 

Hilliker said that while his business doesn’t have the avian flu, “it’s driven prices of eggs so high that a bunch of people don’t want to buy.” 

Regarding the many chickens killed nationwide due to exposure to avian flu, Hilliker said, “When you take that kind of supply off the market,” it will heavily affect the production of eggs, as well as their prices. 

Hilliker said bird flu has actually increased demand, forcing rationing of sales per customer. “We’ve always sold eggs at the farm, and we’re not selling any more eggs out of the farm now than before, but we have more customers.” He added that they also “put limits on what people can buy,” which make it so they’re, “able to spread it out a little bit more that way.” 

The farm has capacity for 30,000 chickens, according to Hiilliker. As for steps being taken to prevent bird flu from infecting his flocks,  Hillkier explained the farms’ health and safety protocols. “We’re locked down in our chicken areas. Everything that goes through the gates where the chickens are, is disinfected,” which includes people and equipment, he said. 

Sources: 

https://apnews.com/article/record-egg-prices-usda-bird-flu-virus-92e9f5fbc4e0a792be484a4aee5b9c16 

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/doj-investigating-major-egg-producers-amid-soaring-prices/story?id=119589959 

https://apnews.com/article/usda-firings-doge-bird-flu-trump-fdd6495cbe44c96d471ae8c6cf4dd0a8 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/04/egg-prices-bird-flu-corporate-profits?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1

 By Yvette Urrea Moe, County of San Diego Communications Office

Video by José Eli Villanueva:  prepare for a disaster with an emergency supplies kit, or “go bag.” When disaster strikes, often there are only a few minutes warning to evacuate. So, don’t wait until the warning comes, when you will likely be anxious and stressed, assemble your kit today and put it in a handy place to grab on your way out.

March 19, 2025 (San Diego) - Giving yourself and your family the best chance in a local disaster isn’t  just about luck, it’s about planning and preparing for various hazards to lower injuries, deaths and perhaps even damages.

Stopgap funding measure signed by President Trump; California’s Senators voted no

By G. A. McNeeley 

March 18 2025 (Washington D.C.) — Congress avoided a government shutdown on March 14, just a few hours before the funding deadline. The stopgap measure to fund the government until September 30 was signed by President Donald Trump on Saturday.

The stopgap would fund government operations through the remainder of this fiscal year, but it would also slash non-defense funding by roughly $13 billion and increase defense spending by about $6 billion over current budgets (including billions for deportations, veterans’ health care and the military). 

Many Democrats, including California’s Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, opposed the measure due to the non-defense cuts and because Republicans refused to include language in the bill putting guardrails on Trump and Elon Musk’s ability to continue dismantling the federal bureaucracy unchecked. The  Democrats also advocated for a shorter, four-week stopgap to keep the government running on current funding levels in an effort to buy more time for appropriators to strike a deal on a bipartisan funding package.  Republican leadership interest in those negotiations diminished weeks ago. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blocked filibuster

Senate Democrats came under intense pressure to oppose the Trump-backed bill. Now Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and nine others, are facing backlash after they helped clear a path for its passage by refusing to support a filibuster to block the budget bill.

Lawmakers raced towards a shutdown that would’ve had far-reaching consequences across the federal government, highlighting the struggle Democrats face, trying to counter Trump and the Republican control on power in Washington. 

Schumer and nine other Democrats crossed the aisle to advance the budget in a key procedural vote. The legislation only required a simple majority in the Senate chamber for final passage, and all but two of those ten ultimately voted no on the budget bill. 

Schumer argued his party only had bad options.  “I believe it is the best way to minimize the harm that the Trump administration will do to the American people,” Schumer told CNN, in defense of his vote. “Clearly, this is a Hobson's choice. The CR (continuing resolution)  is a bad bill, but as bad as the CR is, I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.” 

Since Congress has not approved appropriations for any federal departments, all would be affected. Every agency has its own set of plans for a shutdown. Those plans include how many employees would be laid-off, which employees are considered essential and would work without pay, how long it would take to wind down operations in the hours before a shutdown and which activities would come to a halt. Those plans can vary from shutdown to shutdown. 

The impact of a shutdown differs each time, and it’s unclear how agencies would handle it now, especially since Trump’s efforts to downsize the federal government has wreaked havoc on their operations and workforces. 

The Division Among Party Members 

Trump praised Schumer for saying he would support the measure, telling reporters after the vote, “I appreciate Senator Schumer, and I think he did the right thing, really. I’m very impressed by that.” 

Many Senate Democrats and House Democrats saw the vote as a surrender in the party’s first real leverage point in Trump’s second term. 

The initial vote had been closely watched by Democrats across the country, who saw it as a test of their party leaders’ willingness to fight Trump. 

Ultimately, the Senate voted 54-46 to approve the stopgap bill for government funding through September 30. The vote was mostly party line, though Senator Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire Democrat) and Angus King (Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats) voted in favor of the bill, while Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky (Republican) opposed it. 

“Once I had voted for cloture, it was an opportunity to pass the bill, and I thought it was more honest to vote for it,” Shaheen told CNN. “I thought, much as I didn’t like the CR, I thought a government shutdown would be worse and would give Trump and Elon Musk and the DOGE operation more of an opportunity to fire people, to shut down agencies and to close the work of the government.” 

At the urging of Democrats like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, voters had been flooding senators’ offices with calls urging them to block the bill and take on Trump for his dismantling of the federal government. Many Democrats believe that Schumer failed that test. 

Schumer has faced criticism, but no senators have publicly said they would challenge his leadership. 

House Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, were against the bill, but lost by one vote from one of their members. It was not enough to sink the bill, which passed the House on March 11th.  

Jeffries would not answer when asked whether he had lost confidence in Schumer, with whom he diverged on the funding issue. 

Senate Democrats are now grappling with how to move forward as a caucus after the government funding bill split their party. 

Schumer told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he “always knew there would be disagreements,” but maintained that a “government shutdown would be far worse” than voting for the GOP-led measure. 

“My job as leader is to lead the party and if there’s going to be danger in the near future, to protect the party. And I’m proud I did it, I knew I did the right thing, and I knew there would be some disagreements. That’s how it always is,” he added. 

Schumer also defended his leadership position, saying, “My caucus and I are in sync.” 

New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich would not say whether he thought the party needed a new leader, telling reporters, “That’s a conversation for inside the caucus. I’m not going to debate that out here.” 

Virginia Senator Mark Warner said he has “faith in Chuck Schumer,” but acknowledged that the caucus had a “choppy week.” 

“I voted no on the CR. I heard that overwhelmingly from folks, and again, recognizing I got tons of federal workers. But I have total respect for the folks who reached another conclusion, and the idea that they would have had a shutdown that would have put us into the abyss with, unfortunately, parts of this administration, doesn’t follow the law,” he told CNN. 

“I think the Democrats need to have a pro-growth agenda that recognizes fairness, and that is, frankly, not the debate though, that we just took place. That we just took place, it was two awful choices,” he added. 

What California Politicians Have To Say 

California Senator Alex Padilla issued the following statement after the House of Representatives narrowly passed a continuing resolution to fund the government through September 30th: 

“The House Republican spending bill completely shortchanges California and other disaster-stricken states on disaster relief. We cannot leave communities in our states behind as they continue to rebuild and recover from devastating recent disasters. Despite the House vote today, I still believe the best path forward is for Congress to instead pass a 30-day funding bill to keep the government open while we continue negotiations for the remainder of the fiscal year in a way that properly funds disaster relief and doesn’t cede more power to Trump and Elon Musk.” 

California Senator Adam Schiff explained why he’s “voting no, and why this needs to be defeated,” in a press release. 

Schiff said it would embolden Trump to continue tearing down government services, close Social Security offices, illegally withhold funds, illegally seize authority from Congress, lay off veterans, and cut health care and Medicaid. 

“I'm not willing to continue to see Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their minions continue to arrogate to themselves the power to fire anyone in the federal government,” Schiff said. 

Schiff also addressed those who think that a shutdown of the government would be worse. 

“If the government shuts down, let's be clear, they control everything. They control the House, they control the Senate, they control the White House, they control the Supreme Court. If they shut down the government, it is on them. That is their decision,” Schiff said. 

“I am desperately worried about the direction of this country. We are seeing an executive run away with authority he does not have, merely because he claims to have it, merely because our courts have often acted too slowly to stop him,” he added. 

In addition to Padilla and Schiff, Democratic House Representatives Sara Jacobs, Mike Levin, Scott Peters, and Jacob Vargas all voted against it, while Republican House Representative Darrel Issa voted in favor of it. 

Sources: 

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/14/politics/government-funding-bill-senate-shutdown/index.html 

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/03/13/politics/deadline-federal-government-shutdown-congress 

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/03/14/congress/senate-passes-government-funding-bill-00231667 

https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-statement-on-house-republicans-reckless-spending-bill/ 

https://schiffnotes.substack.com/p/my-vote-on-the-gop-spending-bill 

https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202550

East County News Service

March 18, 2025 (Rancho San Diego) – The controversial Cottonwood San Mine proposal is slated to be heard by the County Planning Commission in April, more than six years after it was first proposed.  Thousands of residents have signed petitions  and packed public meetings to oppose the project based on significant environmental, health and safety concerns, and community impacts such as traffic and potentially decreased property values.

Tonight, the Valle de Oro Community Planning Group will meet at 7 p.m. to finalize a recommendation to the County. This important  meeting will be held in the Rancho San Diego Library,11555 Via Rancho San Diego, El Cajon 92019.

The project would allow at least 10 years of open pit mining on the site of the Cottonwood Golf Course along the Sweetwater River, just upstream from a federal wildlife preserve. The develop, New West Investment, contends the project is needed to supply sand for local building and infrastructure projects, avoiding the cost of importing sand.

The Stop Cottonwood Sand Mine Committee will present its opposition to the project during the meeting. The Committee is expressing continued concerns that a Major Use Permit for a more than 10-year open pit sand mining operation — on the site of the Cottonwood Golf Course along the Sweetwater River — is out of character with the already established Rancho San Diego community, made up of nearby homes, schools, and businesses. The project is also inconsistent with the County General Plan and Community Specific Plan.

The Committee has urged those opposed to show up and express their opposition to the Planning Commission. 

New West Investment and investor Michael Schlesinger purchased Cottonwood Golf Course in 2015, four years after the golf course filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As originally filed, the proposal is to mine 4.7 million cubic yards with approximately 3.8 million cubic yards (5.7 million tons) of construction aggregate produced over ten years, in phases with reclamation planned after each phase. Approximately 214.4 acres of the approximately 280-acre site are proposed for extractive use. The project application was filed in November 2018.

Fire safety and water purification among top issues to be discussed

East County News Service

March 15, 2024 (Alpine) - Alpine resident Anne Tillmond is hosting a Town Hall Q&A featuring Padre Dam Municipal Water District Board Members Kim Hales (Division 4) and Dr. Suzanne Till (Division 2) on March 30 from 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. at the Alpine Club – 1830 Alpine Blvd. Alpine, CA 91901.

Padre Dam Municipal Water District Board Members Kim Hales and Dr. Suzanne Till welcome attending community members and customers to answer questions and discuss fire safety, engineering, planning, advanced water purification and more.   The Alpine Club, formerly the Alpine Community Center, will open its’ doors for the Town Hall starting at 2:00 p.m.
Director Till (Vice President of PDMWD, photo top left) was elected to her first four-year term in November 2020.  She has lived in Santee since 1991, and advocates for affordable drinking water for Santee residents and water sustainability. She served as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps.  Suzanne has a Ph.D. in Water Resources Geography from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a Masters in Geography and Urban Planning from San Diego State University.

Kim Hales (left) moved to San Diego from Michigan in 1996 to attend graduate school at SDSU during which time she worked at the San Diego Zoo to help pay for college. Kim holds a BS degree in Zoology and a Master’s Degree in Animal Behavior and has been a biology professor at Cuyamaca College for over 21 years. For the last 10 years she lives in Alpine where she owns and maintains a ranch with her husband, a retired US Navy Captain. 

By Jakob McWhinney, Voice of San Diego

File photos via ECM:  GUHSD trustees Robert Shields and Jim Kelly, who were caught on hot mikes. These images did not appear in the original Voice of San Diego article.

March 15, 2025 (El Cajon) -- For weeks now, Grossmont Union’s board meetings have been dominated by crowds of community members furious at the district’s plan to close its budget deficit by laying off more than 60 employees. Those layoffs, which the board approved by a four to one vote two weeks ago, include assistant principals, teachers and nearly every single one of the district’s librarians. 

The scene was the same at Tuesday’s board meeting, when hundreds of protesters packed into Grossmont High School’s gym to advocate the board rescind the layoffs. 

Gary Woods, who voted in favor of the layoffs, said the decision made them “heartsick.” But another trustee was more frank about what he thought about the librarians on the chopping block during a hot mic moment just prior to the meeting’s official start according to a screen recording of the meeting shared with Voice of San Diego. 

The person speaking was not on camera, but three district employees who spoke anonymously for fear of retribution identified the voice as that of Trustee Robert Shield. Shield was one of the board members who voted in favor of the layoffs. He did not respond to a request for comment.  

“When it comes to the librarians, they don’t have as big a role … They’re overpaid compared to … teachers. They don’t do lesson plans, they don’t grade papers but they get a 10 percent bump in their pay because they don’t have a prep period,” Shield said in the recording. 

But the librarians have been the primary rallying point for the protesters who’ve packed public meetings. Not only did students hold walk-outs at Grossmont Union campuses in solidarity with the impacted staff, nearly every single one of the dozens of the meeting’s public commenters argued the librarians were indispensable.  

The librarians facing layoffs are credentialed teacher-librarians, meaning they offer in-class lessons, aid to teachers with curriculum and student and technology support that exceed what the responsibilities of the librarians of yesteryear.  

“My child is a star example of how the support staff and the librarians make a difference. They went from struggling (with) mental health issues to an honor roll student,” one parent said during their public comment, holding back tears. “What creates revenue for these schools is students showing up for school. What is the point to them showing up to school when all their spaces, the staff they rely on are gone?” 

In his hot mic comments, Shield also said that while the majority who’d voted in favor of the layoffs had “more than a few,” supporters in the audience, they were “silent because they don’t want to get beat up.”  

And he wasn’t done. Shield continued, calling the protests political “opportunism,” and saying that while the crowds may be bad now, “they only have a half-life of only about two months.” They will eventually have “mission fatigue,” he said, and stop showing up. 

“It’ll dissipate if we have the stomach to endure it and just shake it off. I promise you as long as it’s not mishandled in three months, they’ll be lucky to have a quarter of this amount … I’ve been through this before,” Shield said.  

This is far from the first time board-related controversies have elicited community opposition. Last year, a former district administrator sued the district, claiming she’d been discriminated against because she was lesbian. Her suit included the claim that Trustee Jim Kelly referred to her and another lesbian district employee as “’witches’ who were part of an LGBTQ ‘coven.’”

The board’s conservative leanings have also stoked opposition. The year before that lawsuit, the board’s conservative majority voted to terminate multiple contracts with San Diego Youth Services to provide student mental health services. They cited concerns about the nonprofit’s care for LGBTQ+ youth, which includes counseling programs, despite those services being separate from what the nonprofit provided the district. When voting to end the services, Trustee Gary Woods said the nonprofit did not “reflect East County values.” 

Shield wasn’t the only trustee who had a hot mic moment during the meeting. During a recess, Kelly was caught calling the protesters the “rudest crowd,” he’d ever seen and saying, “Some of them are trying to vomit on us in public and trying to bully us and, you know, just humiliate us.”  

Protesters have argued they’re just trying to save the jobs of valued staff. They’ve also pointed out that the district has sizable reserves that would easily cover the balance. Even fellow board member Chris Fite – the lone “No,” vote on the cuts – has said they seem to far exceed what’s necessary. 

“They’re saying these are structural deficits, but they won’t say what they’re caused by,” Fite said. “To me, it doesn’t add up. It does not explain the severity.”   

Jakob McWhinney is Voice of San Diego's education reporter. He can be reached by email at jakob@vosd.org and followed on Twitter @jakobmcwhinney.

This story was first published by Voice of San Diego. Sign up for VOSD’s newsletters here.

By Sir Milo Loftin, County of San Diego Communications Office

March 15, 2025 (San Diego) - Most people in the region likely noted this week’s rain and — in some parts of the county—snow. Residents of San Diego County’s unincorporated areas can report non-emergency storm damage through the “Tell Us Now!” app. 

• Download and open the Tell Us Now! app on your Apple or Android device.
• Select a category and the nature of the request.
• Attach a photo of the request if available.
• Provide the location and a description of the request.
• Enter your contact information.
• Submit the request. 

• Air quality complaints, such as smoke, odors or dust.
• Vector control issues, like mosquito breeding areas, green pools or dead birds, which can be indicators of West Nile virus.
• Code compliance issues, like abandoned vehicles, graffiti or illegal dumping.
• Pricing and scale issues at businesses, including gas pumps and grocery stores.
• Non-emergency problems at a County-operated park or space.
• Other road service requests that are not storm related.